Wednesday, February 21, 2018

A reasonable facsimile of Steven Souza and the Rays get a few other players. (PTBNL still waiting to be named. Keith Laws says, “The Rays can still come out ahead in this deal depending on who the players to be named are—I’m told they’re more than just throw-ins—but Souza, with three years remaining before free agency, is a big loss, and Banda and Solak alone don’t make up for it.”)

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Carlos Gomez is a pretty good player and this contract isn't even middle reliever money. You can't plan on making deals like this but I'd have much rather have had Carlos Gomez on this contract than Swarzak on his contract. 15 million for a middle relieve with one good year versus 4 million for a legitimate everyday player that can play a premium defensive position?

When this offseason started with all these crazy contracts for relievers, I thought position players were going to get paid. Obviously, not the case.

Gomez worked hard as a Ranger, and came quite a bit of the way back, after almost disappearing from sight as an Astro. He's a fairly ordinary hitter but still gets around well in the outfield and on the bases, and he has an extra ability to get hit by lots of pitches. I hope he does well in St. Petersburg.

IF this is the best Gomez could get, obviously the gig economy has hit baseball. That said, Gomez hasn't been an "everyday" player since 2014. 450 PA a year of average play, a bit better if we completely ignore Houston. By bWAR, Dyson has been substantially better.

Looking at the top 50 FA I have have signed players (SPers and position players) taking a 20% haircut from Camerons usually conservative predictions. He much nailed the years on average. However, with 30% still unsigned I expect the that number increases. The biggest losers are the middle class, most people/analysts only looking at the top and are missing this.

I happen to see a couple of Rays games in NY last year and remember being struck by how gregarious and fan-friendly Souza was.........and this was apparent from quite a distance away.

I used to spend a lot of time at the Nationals Spring Training camp. When Souza first started to get noticed as a prospect, he was kind of a jerk to fans. Once his prospect shine started to wear off, prior to his resurgence, he came around and started to treat fans with a lot more respect. I’m glad to hear that he maintained those gains.